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The Germanic invaders came to regard the land as their own and protected it. The invasions of migrating peoples declined when the Vikings and Magyars settled down. Goods became available as peace gave people opportunities and reasons to deal with more than the immediate necessities of life. Pilgrimages required better and safer roads, giving the Church reason to pressure rulers for protection. Crusades required long distance support operations. The Knights Templar, originally intended to protect pilgrims, began moving money for rich people and formed the basis for later banking and facilitating international trade. Merchants started to become wealthy, and their wealth could be taxed, so rulers had good reasons to foster them. When the Knights Templar were suppressed, merchant families opened international banks to fill the economic vacuum. Merchants organized, creating guilds and communes (meaning walled towns and cities) in some places, and these had governments run by the merchants themselves; in some cases these were subject to the emperor, but in others independent. Leagues of merchants formed, such as the Hanseatic League, which rivaled nations for power and had its own military.

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14y ago

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